Fans of William Gibson who want their own pair of virtual reality sunglasses will have to wait a lot longer to realize their dreams, according to Oculus CEO Brendan Iribe.
Iribe said that his company only reached the first level of acceptable virtual reality around eight months ago using their well-known skiing-goggle headset. …

"True virtual reality is 'a decade or two' away"

...Cos Zuck said we've got to do 'Ads' first! ... But seriously, if the industry put more effort into VR than curved, smart, 8k, 3D TV's and endless 'AD-Slinging', we'd be there by now!...But no, the world is drab, and the best minds of our generation are working solely on how to get us to click on more ads...

Re: "True virtual reality is 'a decade or two' away"

I don't see this as an either-or situation; those working on ad-slinging are not the same people working on useful technology.

Also, most of the tech you mentioned is an important part of future VR solutions - curved TVs are a by-product of breakthroughs in thinner, flexible displays, 8k is purely a push for higher ppi in a cheaper manufacturing process, and (active) 3D is just a higher framerate.

Re: "True virtual reality is 'a decade or two' away"

really?

In a 'couple of decades' I'd like to think the need for VR goggles will be redundant as we can all slip on a headband and have the images directly transferred to our brains, sort of like a lucid dream.

I'd've thought the advertising giants would be investing heavily into having direct access to peoples heads too..

Does this requirement come from the NSA?

No, I believe it comes from the requirement to simulate focal depth. You can't focus your eyes on things in the "distance" with current stereoscopic 3d and to simulate that they need to know where your eyes are pointing.

20 years from now

Re: 20 years from now

That's true, but it's probably more accurate now that the technology for it is getting closer. Or more accurately, the technology for a reasonable experience is getting closer. The more research and effort put into it, the more fine details there are that need to be resolved.

The eyeball tracking for the small point of focus and depth perception (generally regarded as only truly accurate within roughly arms reach, beyond that it's a guess involving visual clues in the environment).

The "lean problem" e.g. navigate through a VR environment, approach a wall and lean closer to get a better look at it - what happens when you lean further and effectively pass through the surface?

The end result would be a more important technological leap than the invention of the computer itself

WAW! What A Wanker!

See, saying 'better than sliced bread' is ok, because we'd still have unsliced bread, but saying a piece of tech is a more important tech leap than the piece of tech it relies on for its very existence is a logical loop hole / singularity - or, what a wanker.

Go and spend your two billion dollars muppet - in fact, I now hope Zenimax wins!

True virtual reality is 'a decade or two' away

Gibson decks don't use screen..

They are referred to as a " 'trode set" implying direct neural stimulation, as does the ability of some nodes in the matrix to deploy "Black ICE" which appears to trigger something like a massive epileptic fit in any unauthorized user connected to them.

Mines the one with the Kindle loaded with Neuromancer, Burning Chrome etc.

Eyeball tracking by sensing the mucle currents is an existing technique. Decoding the optic nerve signals is in its infancy.